Time Up

Only the colour blind would describe the budget just approved by Parliament as a green budget. Labelling it "the greenest", as has been suggested by Environment Minister George Pullicino (The Greenest Budget Ever, October 22) is downright ridiculous.

Through the approved budget, the government has dealt with some environmental effects. Though positive, these are but minor measures. They address a very tiny fraction of the environmental agenda which this country should adopt. However, these measures do not address the basic issue: That the environmental impacts faced by our society are the cumulative effect of the economic and social policies adopted throughout the years in all sectors. The environmental impacts of these policies have not been addressed. As a result they will continuously get worse.

Criticism of government attitudes does not mean that, by default, the attitudes of the Labour opposition are in any way acceptable. In fact, the opposition's stance on the environment is even worse. The environment, for example, did not feature at all in Alfred Sant's reply to the budget speech. This signalling that the observation in Labour's collected policy documents (Pjan Ghal Bidu Gdid, page 261), that environmental policy should be integrated with economic and social policy, is just lip service intended to impress upon the electorate inexistent green credentials.

At no point in his analysis of the budget economic and social policy proposals (as well as when he expounded on Labour's alternatives) did Dr Sant consider environmental impacts. The eloquent message he conveyed through his silence was that, in his view, the environment is irrelevant! Plain, mainstream, unadulterated politics: No spin required to drive the message home!

Some have equated "being green" with the quantum of funds allocated in the budget. I disagree with this as the government's green credentials are, first and foremost, to be sought in its policies, an area which still leaves much to be desired (although improvements have been registered, some of which as a result of pressure by NGOs).

Being green means thinking on a green wavelength and, consequently, acting green from the formulation of policy to its implementation and beyond. This has certainly not been the manner in which mainstream Maltese political parties have acted to date. Their vision has been short-term, election-oriented, with very rare exceptions. (The pension reform enacted by the Gonzi Administration was one such exception which took a long-term view. Our society needs more of these forward-looking policies.)

The government has a blueprint at hand but it has not yet adopted it. It is the National Sustainable Development Strategy, which, more than 15 years after being instigated by the Rio Earth Summit, is still in abeyance. Triggering the mechanisms and alternative policies envisaged in this strategy would certainly be a step forward, a really green credential. Likewise, an expeditious solution to the pending EU environmental infringement actions would also send a clear green signal.

The Maltese government has submitted to the EU an 89-page report, dated July 2007, entitled EU Sustainable Development Strategy Implementation. National Report for Malta (http://ec.europa.eu/sustainable/news/index_en.htm#report_2007_en). It outlines a number of measures taken or planned across the public sector principally on environment-related issues. However, it underlines that the Sustainable Development Strategy has not yet been approved by the government. This is also evident from the list of a number of important policy documents which are still in draft form. Not only the Sustainable Development Strategy itself but also various other policy documents, among which one finds the draft Energy Policy (June 2006) and the Draft Renewable Energy Policy for Malta (August 2006).

The EU Commission has, on October 22, 2007, made public a report entitled Progress Report On The Sustainable Development Strategy 2007 (COM [2007] 642 final; available at the above indicated website too). Reporting to the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, it examines the state of play in each of the priority areas of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy namely: Climate change and clean energy, sustainable transport, sustainable consumption and production, conservation and management of national resources, public health, social inclusion, demography and migration and global poverty. All areas are not just interlinked, they affect every one of us directly. Progress has been registered on some but on others, as a country Malta lags far behind. This is evident from a comparison of the Malta Sustainable Development National Report with that of the other 26 EU member states (available on the above indicated website).

Within this context, the environmental measures presented by the budget are just minor tinkering at the edges. Unfortunately, it is still a long way to a green budget!

The author is an architect and civil engineer, specialising in sustainability and environmental management.

cacopardocarm@euroweb.net.mt